About the book: 1984 / The story "Castle of Witches" was written in 1939. The looming threat of fascism became more and more noticeable, the first sparks of the future fire of the world war flared up (when the writer was working on the story, the fascists had already captured the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia). And although humanity did not yet know everything about the great disasters that fascism brings to the world, about the bloody reprisals against patriots, about the inhuman experiments of the “scientists” of the Nazis on prisoners in concentration camps, a science fiction writer who knows how to look into the future, and in the story “The Castle of the Witches” “remained true to himself: the ominous image of Huberman seemed to anticipate the real images of von Braun, Messerschmitt, who put their knowledge and abilities in the service of Nazism, war... And today, when international tension is again intensifying, when even more terrible means of war are being developed, A. Belyaev’s story takes on new relevance. The writer again makes each of us feel our involvement in the fate of humanity, our responsibility for it. And again he contrasts the people of war with the courage and fortitude of those who fight for peace, for happiness on earth.